The present invention generally relates to armament apparatus and, in a preferred embodiment thereof, more particularly relates to the feeding of belted ammunition to 7.62 mm "mini" machine guns.
The 7.62 mm mini machine gun has been used in a variety of armament applications over the years and has proven to be a useful adjunct to larger rapid fire weaponry such as the .50 caliber machine gun. This type of machine gun may be operatively supported in a variety of manners for both crew served and remotely controlled firing in both ground and aircraft applications.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,318 to Sanderson et al a 7.62 mm mini gun is illustrated as being supported, in a fixed mount orientation for remote firing of the gun, on an outer end portion of an elongated support plank structure that transversely extends through the cabin area of a helicopter and longitudinally projects outwardly beyond the opposite sides of the helicopter body. A slot is formed through the outwardly projecting plank end portion that supports the mini gun, and belted ammunition is fed downwardly through the slot, to a feeder portion of the gun, from an ammunition magazine box supported within the aircraft cabin area.
As conventionally manufactured, a 7.62 mm mini machine gun has its ammunition feed structure (which receives the belted ammunition and feeds the individual rounds into the firing chamber of the gun) mounted on the right side of the gun (as viewed looking down the barrel of the gun from the rear end of the gun). This uniform placement of the gun feed structure causes an ammunition feeding problem in the support plank mini gun mounting method discussed above.
Specifically, when the gun is mounted on the outwardly projecting left end portion of the plank, the ammunition belt (and the feed chute through which it is routed) may be passed downwardly through the adjacent plank slot and then turned outwardly into the gun's ammunition feeder which, in this left plank end mounting of the gun, faces in an inboard direction. This routing of the ammunition belt permits it be bent through relatively smooth transition curves on its way to the gun feeder mechanism to thereby essentially avoid ammunition jamming problems at the gun feeder mechanism which could potentially caused by routing the ammunition belt through one or more sharp turns.
In this plank mounting application of the mini gun, however, these sharp ammunition belt turns, and the corresponding increased potential for ammunition jamming at the gun feeder, cannot presently be avoided when the gun is mounted on the right end portion of the support plank. This is due to the fact that in this gun placement on the plank the feed chute, and the ammunition belt therein, must be sequentially routed downwardly through the plank slot, over the top side of the gun, downwardly, and then in an inboard direction into the gun feeder mounted on the right side of the plank-mounted gun. This necessary succession of relatively sharp feed chute/ammunition belt bends undesirably tends to cause ammunition jamming at the gun feeder.
Such jamming tendency is particularly prevalent during either a gun start-up or an ammunition belt "drag" occurring at the ammunition magazine box. The jamming problem is created by an ammunition belt link breakage caused by either of these situations arising due to the sharp belt routing bends. As a result of this ammunition routing problem the plank mounting of 7.62 mm mini machine guns has, as a practical matter, been limited to the outwardly projecting left plank end (as viewed from the rear of the helicopter or other aircraft upon which the support plank is mounted).
In another aircraft mounting application thereof the mini gun is pintle-mounted on an elevated sill portion of an aircraft door or window structure and projects outwardly therethrough to be manually fired by a crew member standing within the aircraft cabin area behind the gun. The pintle structure upon which the gun is mounted is designed to permit the gun to be pivoted upwardly and downwardly, and from side to side, by the operator of the gun. The mini gun is supplied with belted ammunition from an ammunition magazine box disposed on the cabin area floor beneath and to one side of the gun. To facilitate belted ammunition feed to the pintle-mounted machine gun the gun is oriented on the pintle structure in a manner such that the side-mounted ammunition feeder on the gun faces downwardly.
When the ammunition magazine box is positioned leftwardly of the gun on the cabin floor the feed chute portion adjacent the gun may be bent horizontally away from the gun to a degree sufficient to permit the gun to be pivoted upwardly to its full upper limit position, if desired, without causing the feed chute to strike the sill structure and limit the upward pivotal movement of the gun and without causing ammunition jamming in the gun due to an overly sharp bend angle in the feed chute.
However, when the ammunition magazine box is disposed to the right of the gun the feed chute cannot be bent away from an interfering relationship with the pintle structure without sharply bending the feed chute portion adjacent the gun and thereby tending to create the aforementioned ammunition jamming. Accordingly, it is common practice to simply permit the feed chute to hang down inwardly over the sill structure on its way to the ammunition magazine box. This heretofore necessary practice in turn causes the feed chute to strike the pintle structure as the gun is pivoted upwardly toward its designed for upper limit position, thereby undesirably limiting the available upward pivotal movement of the gun.
It can be readily seen from the foregoing that it would be desirable to provide improved belted ammunition feed apparatus for 7.62 mm mini machine guns that eliminates or at least substantially reduces the above-mentioned machine gun ammunition feeding problems, limitations and disadvantages in the described gun mounting applications. It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide such improved ammunition feed apparatus.